ISIS has taken accountability for the devastating massacre and affliction of over one hundred innocent homosexual, transgender, and queer people and allies early yesterday morning, regarded as the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Omar Mateen of Fort Pierce, FL, a man who had been held under numerous investigations by the FBI--one for his so-called "inflammatory comments" made toward coworkers, suggestive of Islamic extremist sentiments and terrorism--is immediately evident to be responsible for this tragedy, having shot round after round into a dense crowd at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, FL, harboring over 300 souls Sunday morning, with an AR-15. The former security-guard-turned-shooter held hostages with firearms legally purchased, exchanging gunfire with up to 14 police officers who ultimately saw him to his end.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer remarked that 39 victims of hate had actually died at the club and nearly a dozen had died in the hospital, with numbers only climbing as medical sources struggled to find additional support. The president was remorseful, stating assuredly, "This is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation, is an attack on all of us."
What happened Sunday, and the subsequent American response, is a reminder that respect for diversity is the new American standard. This happening is a wake-up call to the simple fact that hate is an intolerable force which needs to be recognized as a live issue, and handled from within the hearts of our communities, our households, and our souls.
This happening awakens a deep fear within the minds of the American people; it inspires questions which shake the foundation of the values our country was built upon, and it brings to face the question of how many people are more aligned with hate than with the freedom of love, and how we can convince them to evolve from such hateful dispositions.
In the local community of Albany, and around the nation, candle light vigils have been held for the fallen.
Where we go from here in terms of gun laws has been subject to civilian criticism. People will undoubtedly make sweeping generalizations and justify doing so by the events that happened yesterday, further increasing the heat on the Muslim community, and magnifying the intensity of American Islamophobia. Others will lock themselves away and use this event as an excuse to become reclusive, silent, and afraid, submitting complacently to terrorism as an acceptation of loss to the freedom to life, and more on the left will be reactive to those on the far right, insisting that this act of terror was not mere enough to be simplified as Islamic Radicalism, but as a product of the dysfunction that breeds in the dark chasms of American society.
The bravest among us can choose to live as freely as our forefathers had intended, without fear, without blame, and without hesitation. The most rational will be able to see this instance for what it truly is: concocted domestic terrorism inspired by the doctrine and beliefs of radical Islam and hateful traditions in western ideology. Those among us who refuse to be intimidated by an outcast, which he is to many, even among the Islamic faith, will be the sentinels and protectors not only of the USA, but of the globalized world at large.
